marine life street art

Participants of all ages joined the Tidal Shift workshop on Saturday at the Westwood Public Library. We created over 30 jellyfish from used plastic-bags and used fishing line. Come see the Tidal Shift installation in the main atrium of the library in support of the Westwood Bring Your Own Bag Month. Take a closer look at the plastic bag jellyfish and see how plastic bags appear to be the choice food of sea turtles up close, then walk up the stair to follow the school of jellyfish as they float up to the second floor.

Choosing reusable bags instead of plastic bags is one simple way to help keep plastic pollution out of our environment and oceans – learn more with ourTidalShiftPresentation

Tidal Shift Workshop (photo credit: Claudia Paraschiv)

Westwood Environmental Action Committee (WEAC) and the Westwood Select Board have designated May as Westwod’s official Bring Your Own Bag Month. Say “no” to single-use plastic and paper bags, bring reusable bags instead when you shop. It’s a simple way to save trees and keep plastic bags out of the oceans!

A few days before Beverly Arts Fest, we were joined by Waring School students, faculty, and local community volunteers to help install Tidal Shift at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza (aka Ellis Square). We had instrumental help from the city’s Forestry Division and from the First Parish Church. The installation went smoothly up from long lines of jellyfish strung up on fishing line, up to the roof line of the church’s facade.

Installation day photos by Stéphanie Williams

Tidal Shift supports the efforts of Bring Your Own Bag Beverly (BYOBB) to reduce plastic bag waste through municipal legislation. The installation of Tidal Shift preceded the City Council vote on the matter by roughly a week – so we all had our fingers crossed that the legislation would pass. In fact, it passed unanimously. The legislation is getting the final approvals and we’ll link to it here once it’s complete.

Installation complete: over 250 jellyfish hanging

However, we had to install since the project would be featured at Beverly Arts Festival and it’s important message could reach many eyes and ears: too many single use plastic bags end up in our oceans and are too often consumed by sea creatures. Tidal Shift illustrates how a plastic bag can look like a jellyfish to a hungry sea turtle.

Dozens of local businesses, groups, and schools participated over the past several months to create over 250 jellyfish from the used plastic bags that too often end up in our oceans. Overwhelmingly, local businesses were happy to support the effort by lending their space and time to our events. They too want to march forward to a sustainable future.

A snapshot of workshops from around Beverly

The project also had meaningful support from many individual volunteers, as well as critical funding from the Beverly Cultural Council, the Beverly Waste Reduction Committee, the Beverly Management Authority, and the City of Beverly. The whole effort could not have been possible with leadership from Salem Sound Coastwatch, Beverly High student (now off to MassArt!) Kevin MacDonald, the steadfast members of the grassroots BYOBB ad-hoc committee, and Councilor Estelle Rand.

Thank you to Minuteman Press for printing these signs on durable (non-plastic) aluminum!

Beverly Bring Your Own Bag is an ad-hoc group working on educating Beverly communities on the effects of single use plastic, including ways to reduce our waste. Specifically, BBYOB advocates using reusable bags over single use plastic ones from stores. The effort began in 2017 when Brittney New and I started workings at Salem Sound Coastwatch’s internship. We were inspired by a 2016 project when another high school student successfully started Salem’s plastic bag reduction, that just went into effect in January 2018. Our small committee formed of teachers, artists, and concerned citizens formed into BBYOB when we decided to take the idea on for Beverly.

Since then our group members have presented to the City Council multiple times and hosted events for education. Some of these have been a free showing of the documentary Bag It at The Cabot, Tidal Shift, and Question & Answers with the Mayor.

Tidal Shift workshop at Cabot Street Bookstore

Tidal Shift is a participatory community art project run by Claudia Paraschiv of Studioful Design making jellyfish out of plastic bags. Our goal of over 200 jellyfish will be suspended for Beverly Arts Festival over Ellis Square. During these workshops, we talk about how in the ocean sea turtles eat plastic bags as they resemble jellyfish. This is reasoning behind the project and helps expand onto other conversations between us and participants. Some of these have been how we haven’t always had plastic bags at our disposal. Or how they clog recycling units and need to shut down machines, be manually removed, and throwout. So far, we’ve done over 20 workshops with about 150 finished jellyfish made. We meet weekly at the Waring School Downtown on Cabot St from 5 to 7 pm, drop-ins welcome!

A year and a half ago, the state of California outlawed single-use plastic bags. Civilians and businesses “adjusted quickly” to the law, reported from LA Times. While there isn’t much environmental change to see there just yet, but Ireland also banned plastic bags ten years ago. NY Times said this made people switch over to reusable bags and “you never see plastic” after since having a fee on them six years prior to their ban. If our next door neighbor Salem and an entire island can adjust to the change, then we can too.

Important next steps

We’re excited the ordinance by City Councilor Estelle Rand is being presented to the rest of the council on May 21th. Following two weeks at their next meeting, they will vote on June 4th. Between now and then we are asking you to write to our city officials showing support of the ordinance. If anyone still has questions about any of our events or the ordinance, please message us on facebook.com/pg/BringYourOwnBagBeverly/.

So far, we have about 70 jellyfish hand made by the Beverly community from used plastic bags. We’re hoping for about 150 for the installation during Beverly Arts Festival – so come help us make a big impact! Each jellyfish is made from an average of 10 single-use plastic grocery bags, although we use a wide variety of single-use plastic bag types: newspaper bags, cereal liners, produce bags, bread and veggie bags, frozen food bags, and anything you can ultimately braid!

A lot of conversation is happening about what more we can do since banning single-use point-of-purchase bags is a great start, but just the beginning. What is your vision for a more plastic-free world?

Join an upcoming workshop!

We have lots of workshops in April at local establishments throughout Beverly from shops to artists studios and churches – drop on in! Check out the CALENDAR for more updated workshops.

Join us at Waring School downtown two days before “Bag It” to kickoff Tidal Shift Beverly!

Join the FREE art-making workshop in support of BYOB Beverly in its efforts to reduce single use plastic bag.

Tidal Shift is a community project that communicates the negative impact of plastic bag pollution in our oceans through large scale participatory public art installations.

We create jellyfish from USED plastic bags to understand how marine life mistake plastic bags for food. This leads to the widespread ingestion of harmful plastic by sea creatures.

Tidal Shift will be showcased at Beverly Arts Fest on June 16th. Come for the cause and make a piece of the public art installation!

– Join a workshop + help us make jellyfish from USED plastic bags
– Bring USED plastic bags + your friends of all ages!
– Learn how plastic pollution damages oceans
– See the public art installation you helped create at Arts Fest Beverly!

Join one of our FREE workshops March – May! All jellyfiesh to be included in the installation DUE June 5th, 2018

In collaboration with City Councilor Estelle Rand and the Bring Your Own Bag Beverly Ad Hoc Committee, Tidal Shift is beginning an educational campaign around a eliminating single-use plastic bags in Beverly, MA.

Tidal Shift is a community project that communicates the negative impact of plastic bag pollution in our oceans through large scale participatory public art installations. The project is an artful communication and educational tool as North Shore communities rally to adopt positive legislation to reduce single-use plastic bags.

While a lot of behind-the-scenes preparation has been happening for months, the public launch officially at Beverly City Hall on January 16th where the Ad Hoc Committee presented the many reasons to adopt new legislation to eliminate single use plastic bags in the city.

Local students and Change is Simple showcase plastic waste through art-making to support BYOB Beverly’s plans for legislation eliminating single-use plastic bags.

At this point, 61 Massachusetts cities, including Boston, have adopted plastic-bag reduction legislation. On the North Shore, Beverly would join many communities that have a integrated relationship with the water on their shores. Tidal Shift will conduct workshops for all ages during the next few months leading up to Arts Fest Beverly.

The project showcases a canopy of jellyfish made from used plastic bags to illustrate how marine life “sees” plastic bag pollution as food. This leads to the widespread ingestion of harmful plastic by sea creatures.

Tidal Shift jellyfish are easy and fun to create at workshops for all ages, at different venues in town from libraries and schools to cafés, restaurants, and shops. The community helps to create the canopy as they learn about the reasons for reducing single-use plastic bags in our community and oceans. Stay tuned for workshop times and locations!

A group show meant to inspire people to action. With grace, beauty and humor these artists use their gifts to raise consciousness about climate change, sea level rise, and ocean pollution. (from Flatrocks Gallery)

Tidal Shift workshop inside Flatrocks Gallery 2017

Like many cities around the North Shore, Gloucester is also thinking about adopting legislation to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags. Tidal Shift brings the expressive power of art to help communicate the importance of aligning our values for living with the appropriate legislation. Another small nudge towards a Tidal Shift!

Used plastic-bag jellyfish ready for installation

The gallery was a meaningful space in which to create these plastic bag jellyfish, surrounded by powerful artwork like Karen Ristuben’s “108 Acidified Eggshells.”